"We are perturbed by the rise despite all of our efforts," Colonel Elsbeth Ritchie, psychiatric consultant to the army's surgeon general, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Ritchie was part of a team that reviewed suicide prevention efforts in Iraq in October after Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno raised concerned about suicides among deployed soldiers.

Data released by the army Thursday, January 31, show the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides spiked in 2007 with 89 confirmed suicides and another 32 deaths awaiting confirmation as suicides.

In 2006, 102 active duty soldiers committed suicide, almost double the number in 2001.

According to the figures, more than 2,000 soldiers tried to take their own lives or injure themselves in 2006, compared to about 375 in 2002.

Most suicides are young males between the ages of 18 and 24, but the army experts are also starting to see higher numbers of suicides among older soldiers and females.

Ritchie said 11 female soldiers killed themselves in 2006. "That's the highest number of females we've ever seen," she said.

Dennis Dingle, an army official responsible for the well being of the force, said relatively few suicides occur among deployed troops.

Most were among soldiers who had been back for more than a year.

For instance, of 102 suicides of active duty soldiers in 2006, 72 were not deployed; 27 were deployed in Iraq; three in Afghanistan.

The suicide rate per 100,000 soldiers in the active duty army spiked to 17.5 by the end of 2006, up from 12.8 at the start of the year, the data showed.

While that remains slightly below the suicide rate for a comparable slice of the general population, it is well above suicide rates that have prevailed in the US Army since 1980, when the service began tracking them in detail.

The army's previous high was 15.8 per 100,000 in the mid-1980s.

Damaged Lives

Army officials attributed the disturbing rise in suicides to strains in soldiers' marriages and other relationships as deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan lengthen and multiply.

"The frequent deployments strain relationships. And strained relationships and divorces are definitely related to increase suicide…I think it's a marker of the stress on the force," Ritchie said.

She said they found most suicides involved relationship difficulties; a smaller percentage stemmed from legal, financial or occupational problems.

"Somebody would get an email from a spouse, saying, 'I want a divorce' and then would shoot themselves," she said.

They army's psychiatric consultant said the second factor in soaring suicides is post-traumatic stress disorder.

"And historically post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with strained relationships, with substance abuse, so there can be in some cases a cascade," she said.

According to Pentagon figures, 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of marines reporting mental health problems after returning from the front.

A study by The New York Times showed earlier this month that dozens of US war veterans, whose battle experiences on the streets of Baghdad and Kabul left them with psychic wounds, had been convicted of first-degree homicide back home.

At least 121 veterans have been convicted of or charged with murder in the US based on police, court and military records.

About a third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, and a quarter were fellow service members.

HEYET Net- Islam Online